Chocolate fudge toppings for ice cream are widely used confections. Currently they are manufactured by separately adding weighed quantities of chocolate liquor, cocoa, salt, vanillin, vegetable oil, stabilizer, emulsifier and milk powder to a measured quantity of corn syrup, sugar and water residing in a kettle. This mixture is agitated and heated in the kettle until an intimate mixture of all of the materials is produced. The resultant intimate mixture is then packed in small bottles for direct consumer use or in large cans for institutional use. Some manufacturers run the mixture produced in the kettle through a homogenizer before packing. This method of manufacture has certain disadvantages. The manufacturer is required to purchase, store, inventory, handle and weigh a large number of ingredients in formulating a kettle batch, errors are common. Unless the product from the kettle is run through a homogenizer before packing the product is frequently gritty due to the presence of large particles of cocoa powder or cocoa solids in the mixture. The product, whether the homogenization step is used or not, is a thin liquid which must be stored in the containers for as long as four to six weeks before it develops the thick creamy character of an acceptable fudge topping. Immediately after packaging, it can be poured from the container as a thin syrup, but after the four to six weeks storage period, it has thickened to the point where it must be spooned from the container and has all of the desired characteristics of a fudge topping.
It would be desirable to simplify the manufacturing procedure for topping producers by reducing the number of ingredients which they must store, inventory and measure and it would be especially desirable to enable them to avoid the four to six weeks storage period required for the product to develop a thick creamy consistency so that it is in a condition suitable for sale to the consumer.